


Five times Hotch tucked a teammate in. (And one time the other thing happened.)

by Hagar



Series: Take Seven [4]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: 5 Things, Drabble Sequence, Fluff, Gen, One Shot, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-03
Updated: 2010-06-03
Packaged: 2017-10-09 21:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotch has a tendency to tuck his teammates in when he think he can get away with it unnoticed. It goes around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five times Hotch tucked a teammate in. (And one time the other thing happened.)

It goes unspoken that part of her job is to know the things nobody says aloud. Like this: it's wheels up out of Quantico by 11:00 and back home in the evening, regardless of how long the case took and the time of day they were really done. One of the others might say something about closure, but that's not what JJ does. What she does do is make sure they won't be back late into the night, just late enough to look out the jet's window and see sunset, see the stars, test-drive sleep before they're alone with it.

**JJ sleeps like it's home**  
JJ monopolizes the couch whenever she can get away with it, whenever there isn't one of the others who has unequivocally earned it. She kicks off her heels and, if she curls on her side, she actually fits there without her feet dangling over. Hotch stands and watches her whenever everyone else is asleep as well so he can get away with it. Watching JJ sleep makes his heart rate slow and his blood pressure drop. Mostly, though, he'll be caught staring so all he does is find that comforter – the baby-blue one JJ likes – and spread it over her.

**Morgan wakes at the slightest disturbance**  
If Morgan ever wakes up and catches him there will be considerable rebuilding of trust to do, so Hotch hopes it'll never happen. Morgan usually falls asleep sitting up, like he hadn't seen it coming, or with his face buried in his hands on the table. If it's been a bad one and they're both twitchy, Hotch will let JJ, Emily or even Reid handle it. Other times, Hotch will stand and wait until the lull between songs and then remove the earbuds as gently and carefully as possible, shut down the mp player and set it on the table.

**Emily sleeps like her limbs are too long**  
Emily is poised and elegant when she walks and a mess of gangly limbs when she's asleep, silent testimony that she wasn't allowed to be clumsy enough as a teen. Most of his people look healthier when they're asleep; Emily goes paler, and he can almost see the jagged edges pushing under the skin. She leans against the hull, small pillow tucked behind her neck, and her legs may end up anywhere. One time he had to take her shoes off because one of those heels almost made a hole in his thigh. That's how he explained it off, anyway.

**Reid can sleep anywhere, anytime**  
Reid can fall asleep in any position that isn't standing, and JJ has the cell phone pictures to prove it. Hotch actually dotes on Reid the least, because usually one or three of the others will beat him to it, plus it has to have been a seriously bad day for Reid to not bite Hotch's head off for it. Coincidentally – or not – these are the days anyone else will lose a limb if they try. Hotch would take pride in that, except half the time he's afraid it's because Reid doesn't want Hotch setting _that_ example for the team.

**Dave falls asleep working**  
Rossi will fall asleep in a chair with its back straight up, a book or a case file in his hand. It makes Hotch smile, just a little, as he picks up the pen that fell from Dave's other hand and places it on the table, extracting the book if he think he can manage it without waking Dave. He tries to arrange the things as if it was Rossi who put them aside before falling asleep, because Dave is proud like that and he never says anything if he realizes what Aaron's done, but Hotch can see it anyway.

**…and the time the other thing happened.**  
Cases about children are go-in-without-backup bad; cases that leave children orphaned of their fathers are run-into-gasoline-infernos worse. If it's the former he'll give in to Morgan, JJ or Dave, and often they do actually help; if it's the latter, line of sight is the closest he'll let them get. It was after one such case that Hotch set down on the couch because of turbulence, and woke up hours later during landing procedures, covered with a blanket, his long-cold tea gone, his shoes off and his tie loosened, to a team that annoyingly had no problem whatsoever meeting his eyes.


End file.
